feel

Whenever you think or you believe or you know, you’re a lot of other people: but the moment you feel, you’re nobody-but-yourself.

E.E. Cummings

Connecting this to Wall-E might seem a bit of a stretch but the lights in what’s actually a strip mall parking lot sort of tie up the whole representation of that film in my heart; in terms of consumerism and assimilation, but then a robot shows us how to feel and become human again. I like to think of the one in the bottom left corner as Wall-E smiling at me. It’s far too easy in our worldly, consumer driven life to go to the grocery store or Starbucks or Five Guys (I must be hungry with all the food oriented references here) and fail to see the beauty surrounding us. Our fears (which I truly think is what it all boils down to) make us miss out on what’s most important in life. I know I struggle with my fears daily. When I captured this moment, it was like finding the beauty of a Montana big sky country sunset in a strip mall in part of the country that’s very much Montana’s geographic opposite. It brought me peace. Even if it was momentary, sometimes that’s enough to keep us going.